Thanks to all on here who took the time to add their views for this year's Close Season Survey, which drew over 800 responses this time.
Both PAFC and AFT personnel have had a few weeks to review the responses and draw some conclusions - the club described the findings as "very valuable information" and that "we plan to discuss the findings at length".
This makes it a worthwhile exercise for us all, hopefully.
Here follows the press release from the AFT, which is copied on their site and accompanied by a PDF download of the responses for you all to pick over.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] With luck, the findings will help to provide the basis for more informed debate and discussion on here and elsewhere.
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The Argyle Fans' Trust again hosted this season's Close Season Fans' Survey. The survey, also managed again this year by John Lloyd, drew over 800 responses. While this was a little down on last season's survey, in part due to the timing which meant the survey wasn't available on paper on match days, the Trust wishes to thank everyone who took part. The results have been passed on to the Club, which will analyse them with a view to improving facilities and the match day experience for all fans. The full results can be downloaded at the end of this article.
A notable statistic centres around the age profile of Argyle fans, and how long they've been supporting the club. The most popular age bracket is 46-55, with over half of all supporters being 46 or over. Further, only 3% of respondents have started supporting Argyle in the last 4 years, and only 15% have started following Argyle in the last 10 years. With the team's decline on the pitch in recent times, these numbers are perhaps not surprising, but it's vital for the long term future of the Club that Argyle start attracting new supporters. The Trust will be making helping the club achieve this one of its key priorities for the coming year.
Last season, Argyle's average attendance was 7,095, which was only surpassed by Bradford and Rotherham. Despite the lowly league finish, that figure was still up by 180 from the season before, where Argyle averaged 6,915 at Home Park. The survey showed that for those fans who attended less games last season, only 10% blamed the team's performance. The good news is that 37% say they will go to more games this season, and only 5% say they will go to fewer games, no doubt in part due to the promising upturn in results under John Sheridan. It's a great tribute to Argyle supporters that our gates have held up as they have, despite the results on the pitch.
The majority of supporters feel that £15-£20 is the right price for a ticket. Just under 20% would like to see a "saturday only" membership package, while 30% say that a 10% reduction in ticket prices would mean they'd go to more games. Over 80% of respondents support the use of occasional cut-price deals to boost attendances.
The supporters' positive view of the club has slipped a little, with 10% fewer feeling "part of the club" than the same time last season, with a similar drop in opinion on the "PAFC is an important part of what Plymouth is about" question. The view of the performance of the first team and its management has also dropped since last season, but this would have perhaps been a tricky question to answer given results did improve after Sheridan came in. The fact that 30% of fans are likely to go to more games this season than last is perhaps the better barometer here.
For Q25, which was about which one area the club needs to improve generally, the most common responses were:
Grandstand - 170
Communication with fans - 87
Team - 36
Catering - 27
Marketing - 19
Parking - 16
Speakers/PA - 15
The Club web site looks like an area for improvement, with those satisfied down 20% from last season. Further, the ratings for the Club's communication with supporters has also dropped, though a new survey question shows support for the Club's use of social media.
In terms of which area needs improving on match days, Q26 showed:
Catering - 124
Speakers/PA - 72
Team performance - 64
Pre/half time entertainment - 51
Stewarding - 31
Atmosphere - 25
Entry/exiting the ground - 20
Stewarding has been an area of improvement, with more fan approval, and less complaints compared to previous seasons.
While more people are also satisfied with the match day catering, nearly half remain disatisifed; perhaps to be expected from football ground stalls, but the length of queues is a common complaint.
The Trust brought the safe standing roadshow to Home Park last season, and the survey shows 75% of supporters in favour of its introduction. If feasible to be retrofitted, this may give the Club an interesting option to increase the stadium capacity in the future, given two people can stand in the area taken by one rail seat.
The favoured team strip colour is mid to dark green, though of all the strips, the old 60's white shirt with green and black hoops scored very well.
Support for Semper Fedelis being played in full remains strong, while the figure in favour of goal music also remains unchanged at 40%.
In terms of supporter group questions, the level of awareness of the groups remains similar to last season, with 97% awareness of the Trust. There has however been a shift across the board for all supporter groups from those with positive views to more neutral views. It's possible that as the memory of administration becomes more distant, opinions will drift, but it's a timely reminder for all groups, including the Trust, that communicating with and listening to their members and working on new and relevant issues is very important. The Trust will be surveying its own membership soon to get more specific feedback from its members.
Our thanks also go to John Petrie, who helped run the previous years' surveys.
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Tue Aug 20, 2013 4:54 pm